HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB Minutes 1988-03-07TOWN OF ITHACA
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
March 7, 1988
At a Regular Meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca,
Tcnipkins County, New York, held at the Town Offices at 126 East
Seneca Street, Ithaca, New York, on the 7th day of March, 1988,
there were:
PRESENT: Noel Desch, Supervisor
Henry McPeak, Councilman
Shirley Raffensperger, Councilwotian
Robert Bartholf, Councilman
Patricia Leary, Councilwcman
Raymond Bordoni, Councilman
Thomas Cardman, Councilman
ALSO PRESENT: Robert Flumerfelt, Town Engineer
John Ozolins, Highway Superintendent
John Bamey, Town Attorney
Beverly Livesay, Board of
Representatives
Edward W. King, Attorney for Black
Oak Project
Representatives of the Media:
Fred Yahn, Ithaca Journal
Tan Maskulinski, WTKO/WOSIY
Will Dow, FM 93 News
Debbie Munch, WHCU/WXYL
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Supervisor led the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance.
REPORT OF TCWN OFFICIALS
Town Supervisor's Report
South Hill Water Notes No. 1 and No. 2 and Coddington Road Water
Note
Supearvisor Desch reported that for the Board's information, these
notes have been renewed for one month at 4.75% interest and we paid
the maximum principal per the direction of the Board at our
February 29 meeting. Bond Counsel is working with us to prepare
the Statutory Installment Bond resolution for adoption at the end
of the BAN period.
Youth Services
Supervisor Desch stated that the City of Ithaca Ccramon Council was
unwilling to ccnpronise by accepting the resolution prepared by the
ad hoc conmittee. This will set the planning process back since it
ranoves a powerful incentive for all parties to fast track the
process. At the next meeting of the ad hoc coranittee, tonorrow, he
would request the group to set the mechanics in place for a voucher
system so that the Town can assist our users in the enrollment and
cost offset of these programs.
Ccmmonland Access
Town Board 2 March 7, 1988
The Supervisor went on to say that the Planning Board designated
the location of the emergency access road at their meeting on March
1. He stated that he had asked Susan Beeners to bring this forward
as an action item for this evening since we need to keep the
pressure on the developer to construct the road before the
occupancy of the western most units take place and he has moved the
crews elsev^ere. Also, the developer is leaving the country, very
soon, for a year.
Ellis Hollow Elderly Housing
Supervisor Desch reported that the 1988 tax bill for the first time
included a major County tax and is causing the project financial
problems. We have met with the Manager and County Administrative
staff to explore a number of short and long term solutions. Our
reccmmendation, at this point, to the Manager is that they apply to
the County for a 1990 tax exenption. This may be timely because
the County is considering such an exemption for a Freeville
project.
As to the 1988 and 1989 problem, he stated that he will be bringing
to the Board a reccmmendation in April with regard to the apparent
inability of the project to pay the $20,000 in lieu of amount. It
is very ccnplicated and involves interpretation by County
Assessment and our Attorney.
League of Wonen Voters
The Supervisor noted a letter received frcm the League requesting
the Board to consider a resolution with regards to the open
meetings law with respect to political caucuses. He went on to say
that he would like the Board to consider the adoption of the draft
resolution as an agenda item this evening.
Special Board Meeting
Supervisor Desch noted that it may be necessary to hold a Special
i Jfeeting in March to consider a number of action items including:
(1) ^pointment of Assistant Planner.
(2) Approval of Statutory Installment Bond resolution.
(3) i^proval of Newsletter for early April distribution
because of Spring Clean-up .
(4) Award bids on roller.
(5) Consider I/I contract award.
SPRING CLEAN UP DAY
RESOLUTION NO. 54
Motion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilman McPeak,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby
establishes Mfonday, J^ril 25, 1988 as Spring Clean Up Day in the
Town of Ithaca.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
Forest Home Drive Annexation
Supervisor Desch reported that Cornell has prepared a counter
proposal on v^at part of the adjoining lands will be annexed to the
Town. It includes all of the rest of the Beebe Lake Natural Area.
At seme point soon, we will be seeing the formal description.
Executive Session
Town Board 3 March 7, 1988
Supervisor Desch noted that the Executive Session listed on the
agenda has to do with possible litigation against the Village of
Cayuga Heights on the sewer moratorium. He went on to say that we
have a property on Warren Road that the County Health Department
has demanded that the septic system be replaced. Our contract with
the Village requires that it be connected to the piablic sewer but
the moratorium prevents it.
LEAGUE OF WOMEiSr VOTERS RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION NO. 55
Motion by Councilwcman Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Bartholf,
WHEREAS, the Governor of the State of New York and the Legislature
amended the Open Meetings Law in 1985 (S. 6284/A. 7804) to permit
public bodies to conduct political caucuses in private, without
regard to the subject matter to be discussed, includJLng public
business, and
WHEREAS, the wording of the amendment is so borad as to permit a
majority of the members of any pxablic body to make decisions on
public business in closed sessions, and
WHEREAS, the Town of Ithaca believes that "It is essential to the
maintenance of a democratic society that the public business be
performed in an open and public manner and that citizens of the
state be fully aware of and able to observe the performance of
public officials and attend and listen to deliberations and
decisions that go into the making of public policy," (Open Meetings
Law, Legislative Declaration, 1976),
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby declares its policy to be that all of its
deliberations, meetings and actions will be conducted in accordance
with the provisions of the Open Meetings Law (effective 1977,
amended 1979, 1983) but without regard to the provisions of the
1985 amendment relating to political caucuses.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
Town Engineer's Report
Town Engineer Robert Flumerfelt reported that under the 1987 Water
and Sewer Projects, the Phase I contract is progress, the
contractor has laid sewer main and just about completed the back
lots of houses on the east side of DiBois Road and is almost ready
to switch across DuBois Road and lay the sewer westerly up toward
the Ciaschi subdivision, Wbolf Lane area. The Phase II contract,
the contractor has his equipment and materials assembled on Warren
Road and ready to begin momentarily. He will work on the Warren
Road section first then move to Taughannock Boulevard part of the
contract. Phase III v^ich includes East Shore Drive sewer, we have
another site visit with Conrail representatives and we are making
revisions to that part of the sewer to get it just as far away from
the railroad as we can, in as many locations as we can to minimize
interference and the requirement of sheet piling and special
precautions along the railroad. We have investigated an existing
large diameter cast iron pipe, that way back in the early 1900*s
was put under East Shore Drive and the railroad in the area of the
marina. We think we can use that pipe as a road and railroad
crossing for the forced main portion as one of the required highway
Town Board 4 March If 1988
crossings and get a good portion of the sewer over on the east side
of East Shore Drive.
Town Engineer Flimerfelt went on to say that the contract work ty
Hill Construction on the hospital access road is approximate 80%
complete but the County forces are going to do seme work on the
north end to make it blend in to the existing roadway better at
that point, so now in the cold weather period, there isn't too much
going on and we are not pushing our contractor because the County
has that work to do on their end.
The Town Engineer noted that the heating and air conditioning for
this building, as you can see by the pile in the comer, the units
are here. They are waiting for a few parts that they did not have.
Town Engineer Flumerfelt remarked that several engineers seem to be
interested in providing a proposal on the infiltration/inflow study
of the sanitary sewers in the Northeast area. We are asking for
their proposals to be received by March 22nd, so that hopefully we
can select an engineer to do that study at the April meeting.
The Town Engineer noted that he and the Highway Superintendent have
been talking about the ventilating system in the Highway Facility.
He felt a solution to the problems could be found.
Councilman Bordoni asked the Town Engineer vhat was the purpose of
the hospital access road. Why are we doing that?
Town Engineer Flumerfelt replied, right now the traffic in that
area goes throught all of the major parking lots in the hospital
and the Coxmty buildings complex and that was one of the major
concerns he felt, was the safety of using those parking lots and
the congestion.
jtiBt
I Councilman Bordoni remarked, this is to get people to the old
hospital so they won't have to drive through the hospital parking
lot.
Town Engineer Flumerfelt replied, this is correct.
Coimcilman Cardman asked, vdiat are they doing out just north of
BOCES on Warren Road?
Supervisor Desch replied, probably the start of the child care
center.
Highway Superintendent's Report
Highway Superintendent John Ozolins stated that the activities for
this month, foremost was snow removal. In addition to the hours
that were spent during the regular working day, 81 man hours on
overtime was spent on snow removal. The office area, the break
area and the hallway at the Hi^way Facilities were painted. We
also had the oil/water separator pumped and the line was clogged
and we fixed that. As part of the program to insure that the
vehicles are available viien they need to be, he stated that he had
started a program of annual service. The first truck to go through
this is Truck #3, it's '71-'72 Ford. So far we have spent $3,200
M and just today we spent another $500 on repair parts for this
truck, as well as spending over 200 hours just servicing that
' vehicle. The Superintendent went on to say that he has been
setting standards just to let the people in the Highway Department
know vAiat he expects of them, v^t he expects as far as when the
vehicles come in, the actions they must take, the cleanliness and
the organization within the facility.
Town Board 5 March 7, 1988
The Highway Superintendent went on to say that he had also looked
at the safety requirements and the safety aspects of the facility,
and that in order to meet OSHA requirements an emergency eye wash
and resuscitation unit was purchased and installed. First Aid kits
are being mounted inside the vehicles. He went on to say that a
fire inspection was conducted by Andy Frost and that most of the
items requiring action have been taken care of except for the
ventilation and the fire proof storage cabinets, v^ich are on
order.
, , Highway Superintendent Ozolins stated that he had been researching
rollers and software for a cotputer to be used at the Highway
Facility. He went on to say that one of the major programs he also
had initiated was a maintenance management program.
Councilman McPeak asked the Highway Superintendent if he had any
idea v^t the book value was on Truck #3? Are we getting near the
point v^ere we say that is enought?
Highway Superintendent Ozolins replied, that is not the worst
tiruck. Truck #2, and older Brockway, is in worse shape than Truck
#3. When we first started he thought it would cost scsnevdiere
between $2,000 to $2,500, however, as we went further we found
more. If we maintain this truck, after this, he felt this truck
would last at least another three to four years.
Councilman McPeak went on to question Clean Up Day. He stated that
at the last clean up there were rules that the gentlemen v^o did
the pick up were talking about v^ich no one else knew about. For
exaitple, you have to tie up the brush in bundles and it can't be
over a certain number of feet long, six feet, if tliat's the case he
felt this should be put in the Newsletter.
^ Building Inspector/Zoning Officer's Report
Building Inspector/Zoning Officer Andrew Frost reported that he had
issued building permits for ten single family units, eight of those
units were in two four duplex buildings. We are going to try to
clarify vdien a single residence isn't a duplex. We had a fee
schedule which was increased in October relative to building
permits so the fees received, year to date in 1988 caipared to '87
are substantially higher. He went on to say that in the ccmplaint
area, the 910 and 912 East Shore Drive property has been sold to
the Chamber of Commerce. Field visits are higher in 1988 than 1987
because he was attending school last year. The Zoning Board of
i^peals has heard three cases, two were approved and one was
adjourned.
Town Planner's Report
Town Planner Susan Beeners reported that a good work session was
held at the February 16th Planning Board meeting reviewing a set of
draft comprehensive planning statements. Another session is set
for April to further discuss these. She went on to say that she
had been working on the updating of Zoning Map and screening
applicants for the Assistant Planner position.
The Town Planner went on to say that there was a lot of
^ dissatisfaction with the Forest Home Walkway and the County is
proceeding with looking at another redesign of the walkway to push
' it further north so that there would be better grades. The Coxanty
is also doing all the leg work as far as getting all the necessary
agreements from Cornell.
Ms. Beeners stated that the Eastwood Commons residents have
requested that the requirement that there be a walkway provided
Town Board 6 March 7, 1988
between the development and the bikeway be rescinded. She stated
that she had reccmmended at the last Planning Board meeting that
the location of that walkway, v^ich happens to be located on one of
the lots of Eastwood and running into a driveway there T^iich is
where objections come up, that really that location in the
northeast comer of the site connecting up to the bikeway was the
best to serve the residents and that she thought the requirement of
a pedestrian connection should not be recinded. Because of the
concern of Mrs. Orcutt vdio lives adjacent to the development, Who
would like to have access through fron Eastwood Ccmmons to her
' land, because of her concerns she thought it sort of was steered
into the Residents Association and Mrs. Orcutt, trying to cane to
sane type of agreement involving both the walkway and possibly the
provision of access to the Orcutt parcel. They were to ccme back
to the Planning Board on the 15th for, hopefully, a final
resolution.
Ms. Beeners went on to say that the one condition that was attached
to both site plans for the fire stations Wiich were approved by the
Planning Board was landscaping. That there be an approval of
landscaping by Town staff prior to the issuance of building
permits. Landscaping was taken out of the budget but there seems
to be seme interest from Ithaca College and maybe some volunteers.
The Town Planner went on to say that on the Coanmonlands service
road, she would like the Board to review the Planning Board
resolution and accept the final decision of the Planning Board
Which was that fran an engineering standpoint, viien considering two
alternate locations, makes it almost irtpossible to come up with a
safe use of Alternate B Wiich is someWiat opposite Towerview Road.
The Town had hoped that "B" would be the location for this service
road, however, Wien the Town Engineer and staff did some field
measurements and considering Wiere the sewer is located, which is
^ along the south edge of the Marion property, they could not get a
safe roadway down to Penny Lane. There will be some iirpact to the
Clausen property because it would be going through between the
house and the garage. However, after many meetings the Planning
Board did accept the location between the Clausen parcels
conditional upon several things. One, that this resolution be
reported to the Town Board. She felt that the Town Board needed to
accept that location because she found no real record of any kind
of an acceptance. There are additional conditions relating to
landscaping restoration and a charge that staff get together with
Mr. Weisburd and ccme up with something with as little irrpact as
possible to the Clausen parcels.
Supervisor Desch asked about the relative slope between the Marion
alignment and the Clausen alignment.
Tdwn Engineer Flumerfelt replied, the maximum sloop on the Clausen
alignment is about 9 1/2% and on the Marion alternative it would
have been around 13% at the top but because of the sewer it would
have to increase to 20% right at the bottom Wiere you would be
coming into a "T" intersection with Penny Lane imless the sewer
were reconstructed either relocated in part or a section of the
sewer deepened which will cost around $6,000.
Coimcilwoman Raffensperger remarked, this has been going on for a
^ very long time and that she had a nice big file on this. As this
item was not on the agenda tonight, she did not have her file with
her but she felt that she could recall the happenings. When all of
this started, there was no Commonlands and there was no development
across the street. We had a series of meetings in \diich
discussions were conducted about vdiere a secondary access road
would be. Some how or another, over the years, we have allowed
things to happen there, roads, sewers, development across the
Town Board 7 March 1, 1988
street, all of \diich has some how or another put us into the
position v^ere there seems to be no other alternative. It is an
alternative that she felt the Board would not have approved in the
beginning. We would no have put an access road between Mrs.
Clausen's two buildings. She stated that she was just making a
conment about the kind of incremental proceedings that have brought
us to the place v^ere we seem to have no good choices.
Supervisor Desch asked if the sewer wasn't the old district sewer?
, , Town Engineer Flumerfelt replied, yes.
Councilwcraan Raffensperger remarked, v^tever is in there. But
that v^at she was saying was that vdien we first started discussing
this and there were many, many discussions about Ccsnmonlands before
a building was built or any road was built, any road, and she did
not feel we would have aproved, nor would the Planning Board itself
have approved that particular road. There was much discussion on a
City right-of-way and that was the recotmendation of the Engineer
at that time, she stated that she was just saying it has a very
long and unhappy history in vdiich seme how or another we have
permitted things to happen, little at a time until now it seems
this is all there is and it is not a very good choice.
Supervisor Desch asked if anyone remembered the vote of the
Planning Board?
Town Planner Beeners replied, it was unanimous but with Miller
abstaining because he was not familiar with it. She stated that
she had looked back at all of the minutes and also relayed all of
the minutes dealing with this service road to Monte May because he
kept saying how can this be? It appeared that there was a profile
submitted a few years ago for the alternate location across the
^ Marion property v^ich was presented at the same time that seme
, ; building revisions were being presented. It did not seem to take
into account the existing sewer. When that profile was presented
the Planning Board recommended the carport revisions but said they
could not act on the service road until they had more information.
Supervisor Desch asked if that portion of the parcel v^ere that
road will go, was that part of the Commonland parcel that was
bought when Commonland first came in?
Town Attorney Barney replied, it was part of the deeded piece that
was part of Catimonland originally.
Supervisor Desch remarked that he could not remember if the Town
Board had officially referred it back to the Planning Board or just
didn't do anything with it.
Town Attorney Barney replied no, he felt the Board had accepted a
particular road and he believed it was this road.
Councilwoman Raffensperger replied, no we didn't. We never did
that.
Town Attorney Bamey remarked, it might have been the other road
but he knew there was an acceptance because it came before the Town
Board at one point.
Councilman McPeak remarked that he remembered the Marion ir>ad.
Town Planner Beeners stated that she could not find any record of
the Town Board accepting either one.
Town Board 8 March 7, 1988
Supervisor Desch asked the Board what they would like to do. He
went on to say that he thought the Board should, imless people want
to look at it physically, decide very soon so that we don't lose
the leverage that we have to get it done.
Councilwoman Raffensperger stated that Mrs. Clausen, at least the
last time she spoke to her vAiich was fairly recent, did not
acknowledge any of the so called advantages. Councilwoman
Raffensperger went on to ask, vdien it says service road according
to the Planning Board minutes that was to be a one-way road in.
Town Planner Beeners replied, right. One-way in for emergency
vehicles and for Mrs. Clausen to use,
Councilwoman Raffensperger stated that one of her difficulties was
that emergency or service roads tend in the future to turn into
primary access points because we don't have any other way to get
in. She stated that she was concerned about what this will turn
into.
Councilman McPeak remarked, it a shortcut.
Supervisor Desch replied, that's v^y your concern is a valid one.
If you decide to approve it you should recognize that as a reality.
There is undeveloped land to the West.
The Town Planner went on to say that signage for this has been
discussed and we plan to make it as discrete as possible. One way
do not enter signs will be placed at the bottom and putting as
little as possible at the top.
Town Engineer Flumerfelt went on to say that his first thought was
to make it as inconspicuous as possible but the point was brought
up that if you don't put a sign there initially, people might get
j used to using that as a shortcut. So a sign will be put there
saying emergency access only.
Councilman Cardman asked if it would be unreasonable to suggest
that, expecially himself and those us v^o have not seen this, that
we wait a reasonable time until we can look at it?
Supervisor Desch stated that it could be considered at the end of
March meeting but not much later than that.
Councilman Bordoni rotiarked, if on Alternate A even if you put
signage up, no matter v^t you do, and dedicate it for otiergency
use only, the way he saw it, if he were living in this area, and
could ccme in here instead of going up the road and he saw Mrs.
Clausen doing it he would feel that if Mrs. Clausen could do it he
could do it. Not knowing that a lot of this was part of her
stipulation for agreeing to do this.
Coimcilwcman Raffensperger suggested that the Board members look to
see how close this entrance is to Honness Lane, also. If it is
inevitable that it beccme a major thoroughfare, again she felt this
was completely unacceptable. The intersections are much too close
together.
Town Attorney Barney remarked that there is a problem with it
I becoming a major road for a couple of reasons. One is that the
piece that can be conveyed narrows to a 40' width v^ch is 20'
below v^at is normally required for a Town road. He felt the
Planning Board accepted this on the theory that it is basically a
one-^way street so that you don't need 22' or 24' of pavement that
you would normally have on a Town road.
Town Board 9 March 1, 1988
Councilwoitian Raffensperger responded that she was just taking the
Supervisor word for the inevitability. Because she would
reluctantly go along with this if we put some kind of a limitation
on it that it never become anything but this service road, one-way,
etc.
Town Attorney Barney remarked that the other question raised was
the validity of the title on the other Alternate, the Marion lot
due to a sequence of deeds back about fifteen years ago and how
^ they were recorded. Theoretically there is a gap of about 15*
• v^ch he was not worried about and felt the Town could accept the
title knowingly but it is a little bit of an issue and its been a
big issue in the minds of the developer. He is concerned that if
he gives us a warranty deed on this he would be taking on all kinds
of liability.
Councilwcman Raffensperger asked if this has been resolved as she
knew it had been discussed for years?
Town Attorney Barney replied no, we scheduled meetings twice for it
and both of those meetings were cancelled v^en it was decided to go
with the Clausen piece. If Alternate B is v^at you want then we
will address that problem.
RESOLUTIC^ NO. 56
Motion by Coxmcilman Cardman; seconded by Councilman Bordoni,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby adjourns
action on the emergency access road into Ccanmonlands until the
March 30, 1988 meeting to give Board members time to look at the
two alternates.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
REPORT OF COUNTY REPRESENTATIVES
County Board Representative Beverly Livesay stated that she did not
know if the Youth Bureau planning had been set back or not. A lot
of people have been inconvenienced by this but the County is
CCTimitted to undertake, with the cooperation of the effected
municipalities, to do seme real planning, vdiich should have been
going on all along.
Mrs. Livesay went on to say that wanted to again, bring to the
Board's attention the recycling program efforts of the County. The
Town of Ithaca and particularly her district in the Town of Ithaca
are very likely to be in the pilot program although no decisions
have been made. She noted that the Village Community Association
had held a meeting and she felt it would be a good idea to have one
in the Town of Ithaca, may be the eastern side or the v^ole Town.
May be some planning ought to take place for such a meeting in the
next couple of months or so.
Supervisor Desch remarked, probably ought to set a date so we can
identify it in the Newsletter.
REPORT OF ANNUAL MEETING OF ASSOCIATION OF TOWNS
Councilman Cardman stated that he felt, fron his point of view, it
was very worthvdiile that we went. He stated that he enjoyed it.
He learned a lot from the point of view of being a new Town Board
member. There was an unfortunate situation, which Councilman
Town Board 10 March 7, 1988
Bordoni would report on. He stated that he went to one session on
the health insurance situation, the coverage for Town ernployees.
He stated that he assumed the Town of Ithaca was involved in that
and how are we involved in that and what are we doing?
Supervisor Desch remarked that this is a very unhappy statewide
situation. The Town is researching other alternatives that would
be beneficial to the employees and the Town.
Coxmcilman Bordoni remarked, vhat Councilman Cardman referred to
was that probably one of the most important parts of the whole
session was the fact that they were going to have a program on
statewide solid waste. You have to get the picture of 932 Towns
sending two or three representatives apiece, several thousand
people and Catimissioner Jorling vho is the Ccnmissioner of DEC was
supposed to show up and of course this name has been on the agenda
for probably a half a year, and he didn't show up. He was supposed
to be there with solutions and answers to financial aid and how to
do different things with various piles of trash that you have
separated and accumulated and done all of these things you are
supposed to do because DEC tells you what to do. But they don't
tell you v^at to do with it v^en you have it all piled up here and
there. They were supposed to be there to tell us solutions to the
problons but because Ccmmissioner Jorling did not show up, he sent
Dr. Banks v^o is his Deputy Ccmmissioner. Dr. Banks, the poor man,
was left with trying to apologize for Ccxnmissioner Jorling and also
try to read a speech that was prepared for him by scmeone else. He
tried to answer all the questions he could but in fact all we got
was a statement of the problems vMch we all know about. We were
looking for answers and there weren't any. As a result of all of
this, a number of people got up and ccmments were made to Dr. Banks
to t^e back to Ccnmissioner Jorling and the Governor and a further
result was that a petition was drawn up and the petition
essentially said that we want this particular meeting reconvenied
as soon as possible and Henry Aron, being our delegate signed that
petition for us.
Henry Aron remarked that Councilman Cardman and Bordoni had already
spoken on the subject of the DEC Ccnmissioner and there was a
terrible uproar at the meeting on Wednesday morning viien the
petition was filed. The delegation was very unhappy with the
lobbying effort of the staff of the Association of Towns because
the Supervisors and Board monbers have not received anything
regarding the decisions of the past. We passed eleven resolutions
and the question is, out of the eleven resolutions? What is going
to happen to those resolutions, v^o is going to work for thon,
against them and how are we going to be notified? The next
president is the Supervisor of the Town of Owego, so if there are
any questions, they should be addressed directly to the president
and not the Council or the staff.
Mr. Aron went on to say that he also attended the Planning and
Zoning meetings and the session on the housing for the elderly and
was very much iitpressed by it and also with affordable housing. He
wrote a letter to Professor Pollock at Cornell University asking
for a ccmbined presentation before all Town Board members, all
Planning Board members, all Zoning Board of ^peals members and
staff for sometime in April. We were told at that conference that
mm the Planning Board can, without legislation by the Town Board, ask
for affordable housing to be set aside and picked by the Planning
Baord within a subdivision approval. They have the right to do
that. He went on to say that the Town of Guilder land is imposing
impact fees for new developments. They have received seme money,
however, there have been seme repercussions. The developers got
together and filed suit against the Town of Guilder land.
Town Board 11 March 7, 1988
Coimcilman McPeak asked if "family" had ever been redefined?
Henry Aron replied yes, the family situation came up again and
there are different opinions by different judges as to vtot
constitutes a family, each judge in each state translates it
ccatpletely differently and he stated that he brought back sane
information on this.
Town Attorney Barney remarked, there have been sane lower court
cases that have upheld ordinances not too different from ours.
FINANCIAL REPORTS
RESOLUTION NO. 57
Motion by Councilman McPeak; seconded by Councilman Bordoni,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby accept
the January Financial Report, as presented.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
RESOIUTION NO. 58
Motion By Councilwcman Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Bartholf,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby accept
the February Financial Report, as presented.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bar±holf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
BUDGET AMENI^IENTS AND TRANSFERS
Councilwcman Raffensperger stated that she did not have any trouble
with the use of the money vtot she had a little problem with was it
coming out of Town Hall Rehab account v^ich has been taken out and
gone in and not been utilized for what we had hoped it would be
used for. Is there no other alternative?
Connie Allen replied that it is the only place that has money right
now. Late in the year we could consider having Town wide pay it
back. You could consider it a borrowing.
Supervisor Desch remarked that we are still committed to sonething
with the heating plus we also have a small roof repair that we have
to do.
Councilman McPeak asked, we don't have a main frame, we have
individual conputers, right?
Supervisor Desch remarked, we look at standardization as well but
with the kind of work that is being done it just wasn't possible.
n RESOLUTION NO. 59
Motion by Councilman Bordoni; seconded by Councilman McPeak,
WHEREAS, there is a need for a computer for the Highway
Superintendent and for the Assistant Budget Officer, and
Town Board 12 March 7, 1988
WHEPEAS, there are available funds in Capital Projects Fund Town
Hall Rehabilition,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize that $10,000 be transferred from Capital
Projects Fund CF1620.200 Town Hall Rehab to General Fund Townwide
A1340.200 Budget Equipment $5,000 and A5010.200 Highway
Superintendent Equipment $5,000.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
RESOLUTION NO. 60
Motion by Councilwoman Raffensperger; seconded by Supervisor Desch,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby
authorize the transfer of $7,000 from General Fund Townwide
A8025.401 Joint Planning Transportation Study for purpose of
payment to Cornell University for the Transportation study.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
REVISIONS TO BLACK OAK COVENANTS
Supervisor Desch asked the Town Attorney if he had had the
opportunity to go through the Black Oak Covenant changes?
Town Attorney Barney replied, speaking to Mr. King, that he was
having a little difficulty with the proposed veto power.
^ Mr. King replied that he wished Mr. Barney had given him a call
because he assumed it was alright. As long as it was a Class B
membership, it terminates automatically. It terminates with the
termination of Class B status.
Town Attorney Barney replied, that's v^at he understood except this
reads in two or three places that the developer shall have veto
power over actions of the Board of Directors, v^ether he is then
still a Class B member or has become a Class A member.
Mr. King replied, that is correct. That is the wording that was
used in the Certificate of Incorporation. Section 701 of the Not
for Profit corporation law requires that any veto power of any
person be stated in the certificate and then it iiiposes the
liability upon that person the same as the liability of the Board
for its actions.
Town Attorney Barney remarked, from a legal standpoint it did not
bother him that the developer has the veto power for the period of
time that he is a Class B member, because that is theoretically the
development period and he needs to be able to control v^at goes on
in the development and vdiat goes on in the conmon areas, etc., but
this bothers him because as long as he is any member at all, if its
down to a point where there are 19 lots sold and he hold the 20th
lot, he still has a veto power over the entire project.
mm
Mr. King replied, its only on a limited class of items. Namely
those affecting the development. He would never have veto power
over anything but as necessary to conplete constmction. The
reason for continuing eventhough its a Class A membership is that
he has a right to change his Class B status to Class A at any time.
He can voluntarly surrender his Class B matibership. It is possible
he could do that before he has ccnpleted development should he
Town Board 13 March 7, 1988
reach a point v^ere he no longer needs the protection of that veto
power.
Town Attorney Barney replied, he does not lose his veto power by
converting, and this is what bothered him.
Mr. King replied, that's the point of it. It would encourage him
to convert to Class A anytime.
Town Attorney Barney remarked, the class of things in your By-laws
says he shall have the veto power over any action, policy or
program approved or adopted by the Board ^diich would adversely
effect financially or otherwise his rights or ability to continue
with the development or contruction of any planned buildings or
other improvements on the project property according to his plan or
amended plans. That's pretty broad.
Mr. King replied, it's strictly limited.
Town Attorney Barney remarked, you read that as strictly limited.
Mr. King replied, you want to take away the rights of the owner of
the property to develop the property.
Town Attorney Barney replied, v^en he is the last person to hold a
lot he shouldn't be dictating v^ether an improvement is going to
take place or not and that is v^at he can do under his veto power.
If that veto power was limited to the period of time he was a Class
B member, he did not feel there would be that much of a problem
because the Class B membership changes vdien there are 15 Class A
members or the five years have elapsed or he voluntarily
terminates. If he does not volimtarily terminate v^en there are 15
Class A members he is terminated automatically and after five years
has gone by he is terminated autonatically. So vdiat we are saying
is that for five years he has this veto power and he questioned
vdiether he needs it, item for item and this gives it to him item
for item.
Mr. King replied, it obviously has a self terminating provision.
Town Attorney Barney replied, when he has sold all of his lots.
Mr. King replied, not sold his last lot but developed the last
structure v^ich is permitted. Once that is done he has nothing to
veto. He has no reason to and no power to under this.
Supervisor Desch added, it sounds like we are back to the
inescapable question of the time limit. Remember the long
discussion we had about that. We were talking about three and five
years. The Supervisor went on to say that it sounded like Mr. King
and Mr. Barney need some more discussions.
Mr. King replied that he didn't think so. What is the point of it
if the construction is done, he is done. The veto power is gone
and that is going to be before he owns one lot because he is using
at least four units, four lots, per building if not five lots so
its going to happen. About the sixth building and it's all over
with, once he gets that last building up.
Town Attorney Barney replied that he just read it more broadly than
that. When it talks about his being able to veto a program, an
action, a policy, any one of those three \^ch effects his or its
right to continue with the development to make any improvements on
the project. In effect this is saying if the 15 Class A members
cane in and say we went to put dog houses behind our houses, he can
say no you can't do that. Or if they come in and say they want to
Town Board 14 March If 1988
put up storage sheds behind oior houses, 15 of the owners say that,
he can still say no you can't do that.
Mr. King asked, how could he say no to that? If they want to put
scanething behind their houses their construction has been
carpleted, he has no say in that.
Town Attorney Barney replied no, any program, policy or action he
can veto and he could veto those items.
Supeirvisor Desch stated that he felt there was sotie definitions
that needed to be included that would limit the veto strength.
That would be a policy that the Town Board would be comfortable
with also.
Mr. King asked, how do we proceed?
Supervisor Desch replied that he had no problem with the Town
Attorney coming up with alternative language that would narrow it
down so that this Board would be comfortable with adoption.
Mr. King asked if it would be possible to have a resolution now
approving contingent upon our developing language.
Supervisor Desch asked if there were other thing the Town Attorney
was concerned with?
Town Attorney Barney replied, there are a couple of minor items but
this is the major problem.
Supervisor Desch noted that the Board would probably be meeting
again this month.
Town Attorney Barney remarked, if it is the Board's sense that
( there should be some finite definition of this responsibility
because if it's not, he was really arguing frcxn the Board's
position but if it was not their position please tell him so.
Supervisor Desch replied, absolutely. Vfe spent a lot of time on a
time limit on the structure of voting rights back vdien we went
through this and this relates to that. He asked the Board if they
were comfortable with the language the Town Attorney would come up
with narrowing the definition so that the Association is protected
as well as the Town?
Councilman Cardman stated that he felt the Town Attomey had
narrowed the issue down.
RESOLUTION NO. 61
Motion by Councilman Bordoni; seconded by Councilman Cardman,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approves
the revisions to the Black Oak Covenants subject to the Town
Attomey structuring proper language placing time limits on the
structure of the voting rights of the developer.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
mm voting Aye. Nays - none).
APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT ZCaJING OFFICER/BUIIDING INSPECTOR
RESOLUTION NO. 62
nz
Town Board 15 March 7, 1988
Motion by Coxmcilitian Bartholf; seconded by Coiancilvranan
Raffensperger,
WHEREAS, the interviewing conmittee has interviewed candidates for
the position of Assistant to the Zoning Officer/Building Inspector,
and
WHEREAS, the ccaranittee reccranends Laura A Predmore as the best
qualified candidate for the position,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby appoints Laura A. Predmore to the position of
Assistant to the Zoning Officer/Building Inspector at a salary of
$9.00/hour effective March 21, 1988.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leairy, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER THE ADOPTION OF A LOCAL LAW PROVIDING
FOR EaWIRCaOMENTAL REVIEW OF ACTIONS IN THE TOWN OF ITHACA
Proof of posting and publication of a notice of a public hearing to
consider the adoption of a local law providing for environmental
review of action in the Town of Ithaca having been presented by the
Town Clerk, the Supervisor opened the public hearing.
Dooley Kiefer stated that she was speaking tonight for the League
of Wcxnen Voters of Tcmpkins County's Natural Resources Conmittee
v^ch went over the draft ordinance at its meeting last Wednesday.
Mrs. Kiefer stated that they had various connoits and sane
questions and sane suggestions. In general we think it is
remarkably readable and it is good to see you tracking the State's
^ changes in regulations, so we canmend you for that.
Mrs. Kiefer went on, referring to Section 4 v^ich is the designated
person, and she stated that it was her understanding that the Town's
practice has been to designate the Town Planner as the person v^o
does most of these items although it is not spelled out in this
ordinance. Point Number 7 is determining v^ether the application
and documents are catiplete. This is the one item in the list of
viiat may be given to a designated person to do vAiich sounds as
though that person can make a determination rather than siitply make
recommendations to the Town Board. She stated that she was not
sure if that was vdiat was intended. In any case, we are concerned
that that determination is what makes the clock start running and
so it is very important that something, for example, like the
environmental assessment form be answered accurately and fully.
Until the Town Board has had a chance to review it for a first time
in a public session we don't see how it could be deemed contplete.
So that is our recommendation, and this may really be what you mean
but it isn't v^at it seems to say, that the Town Board or whoever
the lead agency is, be the one to make the determination as to when
the document are catplete enough for the clock to start moving.
She asked if someone could tell her if they had misinterpreted
this?
Attorney Ruswick replied, you really aren't misinterpreting this in
^ fact, the section on when the clock starts running as far as to
v^en an application is complete is in section 14 on page 9.
Mrs. Kiefer replied right, but that doesn't say v^o makes the
determination.
'1 ^
Town Board 16 March 7, 1988
Attorney Ruswick replied, well actiially it does it say v^en the
person or department designated pursuant to section 4 make the
determination.
Mrs. Keifer replied, so you are not leaving it to the lead agency
to do?
Attorney Ruswick replied no, although he felt Mrs. Kiefers
suggestion was well taken that it is sonething to consider. There
may be cases. Initially the Town Planner is the first person sees
the application is the one that can initially determine whether
they are ccitplete or not. But there may be some cases vdiere the
lead agency at that point, even after the Town Planner has gone
through them the lead agency might want seme additional
information.
Mrs. Kiefer continued stated that their recommendation would be to
not have it determined solely by v^omever is designated but have
the lead agency responsible for that.
Supervisor Desch remarked, the way it is it's up to the lead agency
actually to determine the catpleteness.
Town Attorney Barney replied no, its up to v^o ever the Town Board
designates.
Attorney Ruswick added, and the time limit that starts running is
supposed to make a determination of significance within 20 days
after there has been a determination that the application is
complete.
Councilman Cardman asked Mrs. Kiefer if she was suggesting that the
Town Board be designated as lead agency?
Mrs. Kiefer replied, the lead agency will not always be the Town
Board. That suggestion is based on v^at has happened in the past
there will often be a document before you for consideration which
you will discover holes in and want them filled in and it's just
not appropriate to have the clock start running until you have all
the information you need. She stated that she did not have
suggested wording but that she assumed the Board understood vdiat
she meant.
Councilwoman Raffensperger remarked, vtiat you are saying is that if
you changed it to, for exanple, "assess v^ether the application is
ccxtplete and forward it to the appropriate Town lead agency v^o
will make a determination as to completeness."
Mrs. Kiefer replied yes, that's the kind of thing.
Attorney Ruswick noted that one other thing that might be
considered is that you may want to give the designated person the
power to say that they can tell right off that this application is
not ccmplete without even having to take that to the lead agency.
That person has the power to say no, go back and give us additional
information.
Councilwoman Raffensperger ccmmented, the word that is giving you
wi trouble is determine. Assessment of it is scmething else.
Mrs. Keifer noting section 5, that's the Type I list. We had a
question, we wondered how these local thresholds were reviewed? Is
there a committee that looks at them?
Supervisor Desch replied, these are the same as they always have
been.
SiSZ
Town Board 17 March 7, 1988
Mrs. Kiefer renarked that she assumed that the v^ole ordinance had
been looked at.
Supervisor Desch replied, no. They have been discussed but they
haven' t been looked at in the sense that there has been any
research done.
Mrs. Kiefer continued, saying let us suggest that since the
ordinance is as familiar to you know as it is likely to be since
you all have read it recently, this might be a good time to
consider those thresholds and whether they are concrete to the
Town. Exairple might be v^ether parking for 100 is a low enough
threshold or vAiether...
Supervisor Desch asked if they didn't have specific suggestions?
Mrs. Kiefer replied, no we don't. With the consideration of the
location of a transfer station, the Town of Ithaca might want to
figure out the number of heavy truck trips per day and that would
be one of these possible thresholds. Mrs. Kiefer went on to say,
point 4 under number 5 having a distance of 250' from an area of
critical environmental concerns seems like a good idea so we did
want to coranend you for that. She stated that she did want to talk
about critical environmental areas at the end of this.
Mrs. Kiefer went on to say, in section 6 v^ich is the Type II
actions, number 5 indicates that all tree planting, landscaping and
trimming by the Town of Ithaca Highway Department would be a Type
II action. We are concerned that all is a very broad word. We
know that the Town Highway people are not the State Highway people
but we are all familiar with residents reactions to safety surgery
on trees and so forth and so we would suggest seme slightly less
broad, perhaps routine would be fine but it would give seme pause
for semething beyond normal and routine cutting.
Supervisor Desch remarked, your concern is not with planting and
landscaping but with trimming?
Mrs. Kiefer replied, no, well we were trying to give you an exaitple
and that seemed like an easy one to understand. The next point
deals with facilities and we wondered, for exairple, if ditches were
included in that? Ditches are not a piece of hardware but ditching
can be a major concern to property owners. Does the next item,
point 6 include ditches? With ditching you are left with less, not
more.
Supervisor Desch replied that he would assume it was.
Mrs. Kiefer stated that ditching would be the thing they would be
most worried about being routinely left out of consideration.
Supervisor Desch asked if Mrs. Kiefer was suggesting that you would
not consider routine cleaning of ditches as a Type II action?
Mrs. Keifer replied, routine cleaning would be fine but ditches
have a way of getting significantly enlarged and surprising people
sometimes. That's just a homeowner perspective its not a major
environmental iirpact but its not necessarily trivial either.
Mrs. Kiefer went on to note section 8, number 2. Who is refered to
by the words the reviewer?
Mr. Ruswick replied, that is either the designated person in
section 4 or the lead agency.
OfZ
Town Board 18 March 7, 1988
Mrs. Kiefer replied right, we figured it was the lead agency but it
wasn't clear v^ich.
Attorney Ruswick continued, that he felt either one should have the
opportunity.
Mrs. Kiefer agreed this was fine.
Mrs. Kiefer continued, noting section 9 point 2 v^ich has to do
with vAien more than one agency is involved. The way it is worded,
it sounds as though the Town Board prefers uncoordinated review and
she did not know if this was a correct interpretation of the
language.
Attorney Ruswick stated that he did not think there was any intent
for it to be expressed one way or the other between an
uncoordinated review or lead agency designation. As the current
regulation stands, its says "the lead agency shall be determined in
accordance with the regulations" and he felt that it should include
the option that there could be a uncoordinated review. He stated
that he did not think there was any intention of a preference one
way or the other.
Mrs. Kiefer remarked, well fine. We went back to the State
regulations and didn't find them crystal clear. But got the
impression that initially an uncoordinated review has to be
preformed \^en you arrive at the determination of significance at a
single agency level. So we weren't sure if that was vtot you
intended that the agency shall conduct an uncoordinated review of
the action to determine its significance and then shall move on to
designating the lead agency. She stated that she wished to add
that the committee strongly prefers coordinated review mainly
because it saves time.
Town Attorney Barney stated that he would like to respond to this.
The problon is the routine things that we have here in Planning
Board - Zoning of i^peals interelationships that the tests vdiich
each Board is looking at are just a little different. The Planning
Board is looking at an overall planning aspect. The BZA is looking
at it from the standpoint of a variance situation as to v^ether
there is a hardship or practical difficulty. Or it may be a
rezoning application v^ere the Planning Board is really concerned
with the site plan and the Town Board is concerned with the impact
of a rezoning. So in effect, the environmental significance of the
action being taken by each Board is a little bit different. We
wanted to leave the door open to enable us to do an uncoordinated
review. This would be instead of having the Town Board, deal with
site plan matters which are really more properly the subject of the
Planning Boards more intensive review. For example, instead of
forcing the Town Board to becoiie lead agency and considering all of
the environmental aspects, including those in areas v^ere they
wouldn't necessarily, normally get into in any great detail, but
rather if we had uncoordinated review we could have each agency
kind of look at it from their particular perspective. This was
also one of the reasons we suggested this language.
Mrs. Kiefer replied that as she imderstood it, uncoordinated review
is provided for this reason and it does make sense. It often takes
longer, if that doesn't bother you. As long as you don't
definately prefer uncoordinated to coordinated, that was our major
concern with the language and if that is not how you intended it
v^en you wrote it.
Town Attorney Barney replied, it was just to broaden out and ccme a
little closer to vhat we preferred to do in a number of situations.
Town Board 19 March 1, 1988
Mrs. Kiefer went on, referring to section 10 part 2A vdiich is the
negative declarations section. It say a negative determination is
made and filed and our question is one that we raised at the County
level also. How is the public to know about the existence of a
negative declaration?
Town Attorney Barney replied, as a practical matter the public
generally knows because these are determinations that are made at a
public hearing. If you are looking beyond that it is reflected in
the particular minutes of the agency involved.
Town Planner Beener added, or if it is a Type I it would be
published in the Environmental Notice Bulletin. The amount of
service by mail that we do for notifications currently exceeds v^t
we are required to do now. Subdivisions and rezonings are required
but we do it for site plan approvals, revised site plan approvals
also. That's how they generally would be notified.
Mrs. Kiefer noted, neighbors of the action, who have a definite
site, would know about scmething. Neighbors of sane other kind of
action v^ch didn't have an address attached would not necessarily
know. But, we were not thinking so much about just neighbors but
of interested members of the public like our ccmmittee, for
example. We subscribe to the Environmental Notice Bulletin but she
did not think the average Town resident did and she did not think
anyone would expect them to. It's conceivable to us that
interested members of the public would be in possession of relevent
information or would have legitimate questions or concerns about
actions and they would never know about a negative declaration
because they don't cone to all of the Town Board meetings or
vdioever the lead agency is. We wanted strongly to suggest that the
Town consider doing better than the State does in this regard by
adopting sane kind of public interest disclosure mechanism. We
certainly wouldn't suggest a Town wide mailing, and she went on to
say that she was not even sure they would suggest legal notices
because those keep getting more and more expensive. But we know
that you post agendas for the meetings at the Town door. For
exaitple, you can walk by anytime on weekends and you can see v^at
is happening. We thought maybe just putting up a short list of
environmental action determinations, putting them up and leaving
them up for the catiment period, about 30 days would be an
appropriate thing.
Town Attorney Barney remarked, as to a negative declaration and in
99% of the cases, a negative declaration is made and then the
action is taken iimiediately following. In other words, the
Planning Board reviews the site plan then reviews the environmental
impact of that and if their conclusion is that it is not
significant they make their determination and then they immediately
move on. In fact we usually present one resolution right after the
other. He stated that he was not sure vtet benefit there would be
in publicizing, in other words, if somebody has some input it's too
late, the action is done. He felt the Town did not want to get
into the position of delaying the final action another 30 days
until the Planning Board can meet again.
Mrs. Kiefer replied, that she thought Mr. Barney had just stated
very well, precisely, viiat the problem is. That a negative
declaration is arrived at and boan the action can occur.
Nevertheless, there is provision in the regs for recession of
negative declarations. It can be based on changes in the
application project, also upon information that was not previously
known to the decision maker. It is to allow for that to happen
that we are suggesting there be time period, seme mechanism would
let interested citizens do that. She stated that she did not think
Town Board 20 March 7, 1988
it would happen very often and she did not think they were asking
for a lot of delay.
Town Attorney Barney replied, the mechanical problem is suppose you
give a subdivision approval and the next day the applicant walks in
the door saying he wants a building permit because he is going to
construct a building on it and that building permit is issued,
based upon the action the Board took.
Mrs. Kiefer replied, you would have to make that no longer possible
by language in an ordinance.
Town Attorney Barney replied, the problem is even now, the
development process in the Town of Ithaca is very long in part
because of these but also in part because of staff time, etc., then
we set up another hurdle v^ch requires another review.
Supervisor Desch stated that he was concerned with the
administrative costs. Our staff doesn't need anymore
administrative burdens then they are trying to handle now.
Town Attorney Barney continued, most people v^o are concerned about
a project are going to be aware of v^t is happening. They are
going to get in addition to the public notice that is sent out on
any subdivision, in many instances notice is given by mail. They
can came and have an opportunity to present information to the
appropriate Board at the public hearing and if they don't like the
decision they decide if they want to go to court or not. Those
people v^o are concerned about a particular action are certaiinly
aware of \tot's been going on and v^at action has been taken,
v^ether they may or may not like the results. But they are in a
position to have that knowledge and he did not know what we would
gain by having another administrative step of publicizing it at
^ sane fashion and delaying final action for another period of time.
Supervisor Desch remarked, your points are well taken.
Mrs. Keifer went on to say that regarding conditional negative
declaration, again the question we raise is how the public finds
out about a conditioned negative declaration and if it is tied
solely to publication and Environmental Notice Bulletin, once again
it does not serve the general public particularly well. And once
again, we would suggest the Town adopt seme kind of public
disclosure mechanism. Mrs. Kiefer stated they had another question
relating to conditional negative declarations and this will come as
no surprise to you since she had been in contact with the Town over
this as an individual in the past. We didn't see any mention of
v^ether CND's can include imposed conditions that are beyond the
lead agencies control. Since the State DEC seems to say that
that's not acceptable, it seans appropriate for the Town to address
that one way or another in this ordinance. Did you consider that
in drafting that?
Town Attorney Barney replied that he didn't want to say we
considered it specifically but the thought of the conditional
negative declaration was to track vtot the State regulation is and
there is some division of opinion between the State and local
officials as to v^ether we can or cannot irtpose a condition.
Mrs. Kiefer replied, so it wasn't specifically considered to be
spelled out or made clearer. Our main concern is that the public
know about negative decs and conditioned negative decs and we don't
see them being informed, in here. She went on to say that section
14 was the time limit section. When is an environmental impact
statement application for permit deemed complete? When the EIS
finding statement is approved and filed. But in here you say
dfZ
Town Board 21 March 7, 1988
except v^en the lead agency my deem its conplete v^en there is
only a draft environmental iitpact statement. We suggest to you
that just because the State allows it doesn't mean its the best
approach. The Town is allowed to me more restrictive. We would
suggest your not allowing this, but rather wait for a final EIS and
the finding statement before you deem something to be ccnplete.
Did you talk about that or just decide to copy the State?
Supervisor Desch replied, that's v^ere we are at this point.
I
Mrs. Kiefer stated that she hoped the Town would consider doing
that.
Attorney Ruswich stated that he believed the word of language comes
from the State regulations. There is a court case out involving a
subdivision approval v^ich is a two step process with preliminary
approval and a final approval. What the Court held in that case
was that you couldn't give the preliminary approval until you had
gone through the SEQR process but that you could deon the SEQR
process catplete as far as giving preliminary approval v^en you had
had the draft environmental statement submitted at that point. He
felt that that was were the State language came from, to allow a
two step procedure such as subdivision. You can go ahead and give
preliminary approval after just the draft has been submitted and
not give final approval until the final SEQR process is conplete.
Mrs. Keifer remarked, that sounds pretty good. That's not v^t
this says though. This allows the DEIS to be it, in any agency
determination in Town, it doesn't limit it in a way like you just
described it. Unless we misread this it seems to apply to the
possibility.
Attorney Ruswick replied, in any case you would have to complete
the vdiole SEQR thing and do a final. The SEQR Law requires you to
do the final impact statement. You could take seme action like
preliminary approval just after the draft environmental irnpact
statement has been submitted. There may be seme wording changes
that would be appropriate.
Mrs. Keifer stated that she would like to talk about section 17,
the critical areas section. She stated that vdien she was down here
last week she asked for a list of the critical areas that the Town
had adopted and was told that there wasn't a list. There is one,
namely Coy Glen and she stated that her recollection of that was
that it was declared to be a critical environmental area at the
time it was threatened by the gravel operation, or something of
that sort. The League committee wants to suggest again to you,
since SEQR is fresh in your minds, that this would be a good time
for the Town Board to consider adopting a list of critical
environmental areas in the Town. You wouldn't be starting from
scratch, there is a ready made document of this that was done by
the County Environmental Management Council back in 1975. Richard
Fischer v^o is your appointee to the EMC wants me to be sure to
tell you he would have been here tonight except he is at another
hearing upstairs v^iere he is representing the Town. Mr. Fischer
supports our suggestion that the Town adopt such a list and he
would be happy to work with you and get you this information. She
stated that she would suggest examples vdiich she was sure the Town
mae, Board had considered in the past viien various developments have
been talked about as proposed. Lick Brook is such an area and the
South Hill Swairp is such an area. She stated that she knew the
Board had acted to protect the South Hill Swaitp on couple of
occasions, and it would make it much more simple if you gave it
this appropriate designation as a critical environmental area. She
stated that the other thing she would like to mention that the EMC
can help you with is that critical environmental areas are not just
Town Board 22 March 7, 1988
good natural places. They can be hazardous waste areas and so you
can make a list that has both good and bad spots on it, the EMC can
only help you with the good ones.
Councilwonan Raffensperger ronarked that the last time we discussed
this she stated that she wanted us to consider some of these Type I
threshold and it was her recollection that these were fairly high
because at the time we really didn't have any kind of an
i^erstanding vtot a full environmental inpact statement really
^ involved. She felt that the Board thought it was an awful lot
bigger than the forms now used for an environmental impact
statement. She felt that the Board should not be afraid to have
some of these thresholds lowered. In other words, for example, she
was concerned about the parking for the 100 vehicles, the 2,000
vehicle trips per any eight hour day she felt was much to high. In
1985, for example. Warren Road had 4,750 cars a day now if you are
talking about adding 2,000 more in an eight hour period you are
talking about enormous percentage increase on the average road in
the Town. She asked if the Board would prefer to talk about these
individually as we go or should she go through them all?
Councilman Bordoni remarked that he would appreciate Councilworaan
Raffensperger pointing out the pages so that the Board could follow
easier.
Councilvotian Raffensperger replied, these are Type I actions v^ch
begin on page 3. Nty questions are on page 4. Now if you put lower
thresholds it is not going to mean that you require an
environmental impact statement. It means that you have stated that
it is more likely that you will need one. 2,000 vehicle trips per
any eight hour period is a very large number for any of the roads
in the Town of Ithaca. Councilwcman Raffensperger stated that she
wished to raise the question again about Type II Actions. She went
on to say that in the Type II Actions she has the same questions
I about the trimming by the Ithaca Highway Department, vdiich she
raised before.
Supervisor Desch asked Councilwcman Raffensperger if she would be
comfortable with switching the word "all" to "routine"?
Councilwcman Raffensperger replied, that would be alright. She
went on to say that she had missed an item further back, she would
like to see a big deletion on page 4 and that is she did not think
we would want to have any mining of minerals that does not require
an environmental impact statement. She stated that she was willing
to listen to the alternate to that but that she could not imagine
any mining activity in the Town of Ithaca presently that we would
not wish to consider having an environmental impact statement.
This doesn't say that we require it absolutely. It says that it is
more likely to require it.
Councilman Bordoni remarked, you are deleting "more than one
thousand tons", reading any mining of minerals?
Councilwcman Raffenspearger replied, that is right, period. The
definition of mining and minerals shall be the same, etc.
Supervisor Desch remarked, you have to be very careful of that
because of the definition that gets into the cutting and grading
streets, you could very well get into a thousand yards of gravel
vdiich is a mineral.
Councilwcman Raffensperger replied, that's the difficulty with v^t
happened because she tried to find in the New York State the law
that was referenced so that she could look up the definition in
025
Town Board 23 March 7, 1988
order to determine v^ether or not that was a reasonable deletion,
but she did not have it.
Attorney Ruswick replied that he could not recall the law, right
off the top of his head, but it seemed to him it was a pretty
inclusive definition.
Supervisor Desch replied that he thought it included gravel but he
wasn't sure.
Councilwcman Raffensperger remarked, if it included the digging of
a basement she felt the Board might want to do sonething else. If
the definition of mining and minerals is vihat we typically think of
a mining operation is being, then she felt a zero kind of number
would be appropriate.
Supervisor Desch went on to say that the dilemma that we face is
the practical desirability of getting scaiething adopted. The
question is, taking into account the ccranents we have heard from
the public it would seem desirable to get the up to date law
adopted and then take a close look at the thresholds. He stated
that this is v^iat he would recommend because he felt there was a
fair amount of homework that would need to go into making sure vtet
the new number is in each of the cases, v^ether it be parking, size
of project, consumption of water, the mining aspect, the vehicle
aspect.
Councilwcman Raffensperger stated that she would be very unwilling
to vote for a new law that did not spell this out. It's the roost
irtportant part of what we do, it seeroed to her, the rest of it is
just tracking.
Supervisor Desch replied, then you have to live in the roeantiroe
^ with the consequences of not having an up to date law until that
can be ready.
Councilwcman Raffensperger replied, are you saying it's not
possible tonight to say that any facility developed or project
v^ch generates roore than 1,000 vehicle trips per any 8 hour day
should be the threshold?
Supervisor Desch replied that he would not want to make that kind
of change without having data.
Councilwcman Raffensperger replied that she knew how the original
figures went in there. She sat on the Committee that did it, and
it's as arbitrary as vdiat we are suggesing tonight.
Supervisor Desch replied that that doesn't make it right or wrong
to determine vdiether it should be 1,000 or 1,500 or 500 or 1,250 or
whatever. He felt that the Board should be very careful that you
don't make a judgement totally in the wrong direction. If you are
going to it, we ought to do it based on something solid.
Councilwcman Raffensperger replied that it could be done based on
percentages, for exaitple, as they do in the State law. They say
ccmraunities of 150,000 or less or 150,000 or more and there is a
kind of formula that built into that for these thresholds.
' Town Attorney Barney replied that he did not think the vehicle
trips was even in the State law. That's sonething that was in our
law before. Actually 1,000 vehicles is vtot they have in the State
law, period. Then there are some definitions regarding facility
size depending on the population of the city involved or the
municipality involved.
Town Board 24 March 7, 1988
Councilwcman Raffensperger remarked that frankly she would say that
she disagrees quite strenuously. Vie discussed last time it was
necessary for Board meanbers to consider these thresholds, we had a
discussion of it and to say that we cannot pass an environmental
law because we can't put our heads together over three or four
threshold numbers does not seem to make sense to her.
Councilman Bordoni asked if there was a danger in estimating or
doing a percentage type of number for these various matters and if
^ we find out later on, six months or nine months from now, that we
are really off can't we readjust that?
Supervisor Desch responded that you can't go back up. You will
have a tough time going up once you set the thresholds.
Councilwcman Raffensperger asked, v^en you set the threshold vdiat
do you think you are doing?
Supervisor Desch responded, you are setting a standard.
Councilwcman Raffensperger asked, for vtet?
Supervisor Desch replied, for the review process at a particular
scale, at a particular threshold.
Councilwcman Raffensperger responded, but it does say, in the law
unless she was mistaken she remarked, that these thresholds do not
automatically require that you have a full environmental impact
statement. What you have said at these thresholds is that this is
kind of a warning signal to you. That vtet you are saying is that
these numbers may mean that there is significant environmental
irtpact. It just may mean that it is "more likely to". That is the
other quotation that she found in the law.
1 Attorney Ruswick replied, that is true, however, there are seme
other procedural differences between unlisted action and a Type I
action. For example, you can't give a conditional negative
declaration on a Type I action. You can't have uncoordinated
review on a Type I action as you can on an unlisted action. He
felt these were the other two differences. He went on to say that
Councilwcman Raffensperger was correct. Simply listing this as a
Type I action does not mean to require an environmental impact
statement it just means these are more likely to require an
environmental impact statement.
Town Attorney Barney added, and if you fail to require it then you
are brought into court and the judge would ask vdiy did you do it?
Councilwcman Raffensperger replied, if you think such standards are
of value, that's not really reason either.
Supervisor Desch remarked that there was no question about the need
to look at the thresholds. He stated that his only question was
the timelessness of doing that in relation to what really we should
be pursuing is the process itself. He stated that, to him, the
process to ccmply with the new regulations at this point in time is
more inportant than changing the thresholds. If you want to delay
the process he felt the Board should be aware of the risks of doing
{Hfe» that v^ile you are evaluating v^at the thresholds are.
Councilman Cardman asked v4iat were the risks?
Supervisor Desch replied that the risks are conformity with the
regulations. Litigation ccming out of the nonconformaty with the
new regulations. The level of activity in the Town in terms of
development puts us as risk and a double burden on the staff to
Town Board 25 March 7, 1988
make sure vdiatever we do not only complies with our out dated law
but the new regulations.
Town Attorney Barney added, that one area he had trouble with and
the Town has been doing it for years before it was really
recognized, is this conditional negative declaration. When
somebody comes in with, say not a major project, but they have one
specific area that is a problem, say a drainage problem. Very
frequently the Planning Board will say we find no environmental
^ significance if you install, let's say, three culverts or take some
action vMch in effect is a condition to a negative declaration.
The State law never provided for that up imtil a year ago and our
environmental regulations still don't provide for it. But it is
something the Planning Board and this Board, on occasion, has done
and the Board of Zoning T^peals to some degree regularly. We would
kind of like to see the parameter of legality given to it so that
we then have a procedure to follow and indeed know that we are
conforming, not only with the State regulations, but with our local
law.
Councilman Cardman asked, if we postpone sonething, vdiat kind of
delay would we be looking at?
Councilman Bordoni added, vdiat is the duration of the risk?
Supervisor Desch replied, there are two things, there is the
question of how thorough you want to get into looking at the
thresholds, it's not something that he felt the Board would want to
do overnight. If you decide that it's a high priority to do it
then something else is obviously going to be put on the back burner
v^ether it's looking at the Comprehensive Plan, looking at
subdivision regulations, looking at zoning changes. There is a
finite number of hours that people have to look at these things and
^ that is vdiat he was more concerned about more than anything else.
, He went on to say that this Board determines the priorities. You
can say this has top priority over anything else and that's fine
but just be aware that something else is going to slip.
Councilman Cardman remarked that Mrs. Kiefer had some legitimate
concerns that she requested be addressed, if we pass something this
evening how would we be addressing her concerns?
Supervisor Desch replied that it was up to the Board to decide
vdiether to take into account any of those comments or not. The
hearing is still open, you can close the hearing and act. Or you
can say to the Attorneys and the staff to take a look at those
comments and comte back with suggested revisions as appropriate.
But having done that, that's in once sense a different level of
questions then getting into the meat of looking at thresholds.
Councilman Cardman replied, so we have two questions. He stated
that if he had some concerns that he would like the staff to look
at, that's one question and the second one is these thresholds.
Councilwomian Raffensperger rem^ked, and there are not that many.
She felt that the one that was of most concern and that she felt
should have been addressed a long time ago. She noted that fron
the minutes and her imderstanding that the Supervisor stated that
he was also concerned, with a 1,000 vehicle trips per 8 hour
period.
Supervisor Desch stated that he was not disagreeing with anything
Coimcilwotian Raffensperger said about the specifics, if we are
going to look at any thresholds we had better look at them all. We
shouldn't isolate one or the other. We should be consistent with
Tofwn Board 26 March 7, 1988
the kind of activity and measure that against the level of review
that we feel is needed.
Councilman Cardman remarked that either he missed the answer or his
question regarding the length of delay that we would be looking at
if we did a reasonable review of these thresholds and he asked the
Town Planner to please define reasonable.
Town Planner Beeners replied that she wasn't sure but that she had
^ looked at the thresholds and it seemed to her that, in her
reasonable review if it, is that they are workable as they are
because in one place or another we will catch those projects. Frcati
one place or another, in those thresholds that we have, we will
require a long form and it will throw up red flags that this may
have a significant environmental impact. Vfe also have similar
mechanisms with the unlisted actions and if the project is at all
ccnplex, if there is any place on the short form v^ere we identify
that there may be seme impact.
Supervisor Desch remarked that the Board had to remember that the
local law that we now have on the books has been with us for seven
years. It's about time that we took a look at the implications of
the various procedures for review. Administratively that is v^at
we are doing, and that all he was saying was that let's not jump to
a conclusion based on really a lack of information as to the
validity of any of the specific thresholds. May be there are other
thresholds that should be built in as well that we haven't even
thought about. He stated that he was just saying that it gives him
the feeling that we better do that on a thorough basis. He stated
that he would like to hear viiat the Town Planner feels is the
timeframe. He stated that he had his own opinion.
Councilman Cardman replied that that is why he asked the question.
^ Speaking to the Supervisor he stated that he interpreted him to say
' that he felt these were adequate?
Supervisor Desch replied that you have to ask v^ere do you go to
get the information, that is the problem.
Town Planner Beeners asked, how do we determine relatively that
these thresholds are inadequate? The process of determining that
and trying to go through all the interelationships between these
thresholds as they deal with different projects, will be rather
time consxming.
Councilworaan Raffensperger stated that she valued the Town Planners
statement that they are ligitimate and good but she asked the Town
Planner to esqjlain to her how v^y the 2,000 vehicle trips per 8
hours vAiich would be 6,000 per day doesn't kind of concern you
because she stated that she went back and checked traffic counts on
roads in the Town of Ithaca. We have very few roads in the Town of
Ithaca that presently have as a total 6,000 vehicle trips a day .
Town Attorney Barney remarked that that is not quite a fair
interpretation, its 2,000 in an 8 hour period. You could have
3,000 of them in one hour.
Supervisor Desch remarked that the question was still a valid
question but v^at you, he thought, were trying to say was that if
you have a project that was going to do that it will first trip
over another threshold before you get to the 2,000. We have no
guarantee that that is the case and that's v^y we need to look at
the breadth of the matter.
Councilman Cardman remarked to the Supervisor, you are suggesting
that we adopt this law and then v^t?
Town Board 27 March 7, 1988
Supervisor Desch replied that he would suggest that as soon as we
are comfortable with the wording other than the technical
thresholds, to adopt and deliberately move forward and look at the
thresholds. He stated that in his own mind we are running into a
crunch period coming very soon. It is virtually here. He felt we
were talking three to six months before you are going to get the
kind of research done that you are going to need.
Councilman Cardman replied, but you made a statement earlier that
backing up would be difficult if we adopted this and instructed the
staff as a priority to look at this and get back as soon as
reasonable. What do we do viien we have new information?
Town Attorney Barney replied, adopt a new local law amending the
previous local law, which is v^at we are doing now. These
thresholds have been in place seven or eight years and the drafting
that Richard Ruswick and Susan Beeners did was done to try to bring
us into conformance with the State regulations. May be you are not
aware that the State adopted new regulations in July of 1987
changing a lot of the SEQR requirements which had been the basis.
The prior regulations had been the basis for our prior regulations.
So that we were charged with the drafting of an update of our
regulations that conformed with the changes that were made by the
State. In doing that we did not atterrpt to make any subsantial
changes except for one area v^ere we defined more closely v^at was
meant by contiguous to a critical environmental area. It sirrply
said the word was contiguous before we put in a footage and said
within 250*. But aside from that we didn't make any substantial
changes, only the words dictated by the change in the State
regulations. So things like thresholds, we did not study them.
Supervisor Desch remarked, the other side of the coin is that it is
pretty accurate and fair to say we have not had trouble with these
thresholds at this point. But he could understand Councilwoman
Raffensperger concern, that we don't want to wait until we do have
trouble. So let's get on with it. It's not something that is
going to happen overnight, in term of the amount of work that goes
into identifying vhat the thresholds should be for the Town of
Ithaca.
Councilman Bordoni asked, this figures here like the famous 2,000
vehicles trips per day were just pulled out of the sky?
Councilwoman Raffensperger replied that actually she was on the
cormittee and it's not quite fair to say they were pulled out of
the air. We looked at the City's Type I thresholds and then some
sorts of gross calculations from the way in v^ich the State will
take different categories of population and decrease numbers by a
certain portion, and so that is how these numbers came about. They
are kind of formula and considering also vtot the City of Ithaca
had because there is something to be said for the fact that we are
rather similar in population.
Councilman Cardman remarked. It was never the intent of this
review to study these thresholds?
Supervisor Desch replied, that is right. The urgency is that we
are also a year behind the new regulations and not having a new law
on the books to administratively take care of the review process.
The technical aspects we need to deal with but it is not the same
kind urgency as the other.
Town Planner Susan Beeners remarked, looking at this land use and
generally v^at we are dealing with as far as development proposals
that come in, these are all, at this present time, very ccmfortable
Town Board 28 March 7, 1988
thresholds. We are not getting mega projects in that could any way
read between these thresholds and not be designated as Type I.
Supervisor Desch stated that he would like to suggest that the
hearing be adjoiamed until the Special Meeting at which time he
would like to have Town Attorney Barney, Attorney Ruswick and Town
Planner Susan Beeners ccnment, so that we can have seme exchange at
that point and decide v^t it is that you want to do with those
ccxtroents or any others that ccme up in the meantime and then
^ perhaps decide vdiether to adopt at the April meeting.
RESOLUTION NO. 63
Motion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilman Bordoni,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca here adjourns
the hearing on the proposed local law providing for Environmental
Review of actions in the Town of Ithaca imtil the Special Board
meeting to be held on March 30, 1988.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
PUBLIC HEARING TO ADOPT OFFICIAL ZONING MAP
RESOLUTION NO. 64
Motion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilman McPeak,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will meet and
conduct a public hearing at 7:00 P.M., on April 11, 1988 to
consider the adoption of the Official Zoning Map.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
PERSONS TO BE HEARD
No persons present wished to address the Board.
POLICY ON INSTALLATION OF DRIVEWAY CULVERTS
Supervisor Desch noted that the Board had a copy of the proposed
policy in their packets and we will consider adoption at the April
meeting.
COUNTY YOUTH BUREAU APPOINTMENT
Councilman Cardman stated that he had spoken to Lois King on the
phone and this evening she brought him a copy of her resume. The
letter that she wrote us was hasty, she admits, and that he had
told her the Board was just a little bit concerned. She seems to
have a very impressive background and that he would recommend that
the Board appoints her to this position.
RESOLUTION NO. 65
Motion by Councilman Cardman; seconded by Councilwoman
Raffensperger,
WHEREAS, Lois King has expressed an interest in serving on the
Tarpkins County Youth Bureau,
Z9r.
Town Board 29 March 7, 1988
NCW THEREPOPE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby appoints Lois King as the Town of Ithaca
representative on the Totpkins County Youth Bureau.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bai±holf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
REFERRAL OF APPLICATIOSr FROM THE TOMPKINS COUNTY CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE FOR EXPANSIOJ OF THE SPECIAL LAND USE DISTRICT
Town Planner Susan Beeners stated that she had received an
application, a ccnpleted EAF for the expansion of the site for the
proposed Chamber of Commerce to about 1 1/4 acres rather than 8/10
of an acre. If you recall, v^at was established as a Special Land
Use District was the Bowman lot and there was to be the use of City
land if the license was issued. Now, the Chamber has a purchase
option for the two properties owned by Leo Wells to the north.
Parking would then be off City land entirely. She stated that she
was asking the Board to refer the proposal to the Planning Board
for their reccmmendation on March 15.
RESOLUTIC^ NO. 66
Motion by Councilman Bordoni; seconded by Councilman Bartholf,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby refers
to the Town of Ithaca Planning Board, for their consideration, the
application from the Torpkins County Chamber of Cotmerce for
expansion of the Special Land Use District.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
I
SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER REVISIC^ TO LOCAL LAW
REZONING CERTAIN LANDS ON EAST SHORE DRIVE
RESOLUTIC^ NO. 67
Motion by Coimcilman McPeak; seconded by Supervisor Desch,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will meet and
conduct a public hearing on i?^ril 11, 1988 at 7:30 P.M., to
consider a revision to the local law rezoning certain lands on East
Shore Drive.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
REFUNDS OF BENEFIT ASSESSMENTS
RESOLUTION NO. 68
Jtotion by Councilwcman Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Cardman,
WHEREAS, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Perry, 1138 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca,
New York, Tax Parcel No. 27-1-11.2 were charged 10.5 imits of sewer
and 12.2 \mits of water on their 1988 Town and County Taxes, and
WHEREAS, by the Agriculture and Markets Law, no benefit assessment
or special ad valorem levies may be imposed on land used primarily
for agricultiaral production within an agricultural district on the
basis of frontage, acreage, or value, except on a lot not exceeding
Town Board 30 March 7, 1988
one-half acre surroiinding any dwelling or non-farm structure
located on said land unless such benefit assessments or ad valorem
levies were iitposed prior to the formation of the agriculatural
district, and
WHEREAS, the Perry lands were not assessed sewer benefit costs
prior to the formation of the County Agricultural District in
Februairy of 1979, and
WHEREAS, the Perry lands were assessed 5.2 xmits of water and
should not be charged any more units of water than were assessed
before the formation of the County Agricultural District in
February of 1979, and
WHEREAS, the Perry residence is more than 500 feet frcm any Town
sewer main and connection to any such main would require crossing a
State or County Highway, and
WHEREAS, Mr. and Mrs. Perry paid their 1988 Town and County taxes
on Febmary 29, 1988,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize a refund of 10.5 units of sewer in the
amount of $651.00 and 7 units of water in the amount of $378.00,
total refund of $1,029.00 be made to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Perry,
1138 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, New York.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none) .
RESOLUTK^ NO. 69
Motion by Councilman McPeak; seconded by Councilman Bordoni,
WEJEREAS, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Bredbenner, Jr., 141 Honness Lane,
Ithaca, New York, Tax Parcel No. 58-2-39.7, were charged 2 \mits of
water and 2 units of sewer on their 1988 Town and County Taxes, and
WHEREAS, the Bredbenner's should have been charged 1.10 units of
water and 1.10 units of sewer, and
WHEREAS, Mr. and Mrs. Bredbenner paid their 1988 Town and County
taxes on January 6, 1988,
NOW TEiEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize a refund of .90 units of sewer in the
amount of $48.60 and .90 units of water in the amount of $55.80,
total refund of $104.40 be made to Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Bredbenner,
Jr., 141 Honness Lane, Ithaca, New York.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
TCWN BOARD MINUTES
RESOLUTION NO. 70
Motion by Councilwoman Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Bartholf,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approve
the minutes of the February 8, 1988 Town Board meeting as presented
by the Town Clerk.
Town Board 31 March 7, 1988
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
WATER A(XXX3NT REFUNDS
RESOLUTION NO. 71
Motion by Councilman McPeak; seconded by Councilvonan
Raffensperger,
WHEREAS, an incorrect reading was taken for the December 1, 1987
water bill of Mrs. Archie Robertson, and
WHEREAS, the error was discovered on February 19, 1988 \^en Mrs.
Robertson's water meter was replaced,
NOW TEiEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize a refund of $101.52 for water, $10.16 for
water surcharge, $87.56 for sewer, and $7.10 for sewer surcharge,
total refund of $206.34 be made to Mrs. Archie Robertson, 31
Wildflower Drive, Ithaca, New York. Account Number B-329.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
RESOLUTION NO. 72
Motion by Councilman Bordoni; seconded by Councilman McPeak,
WtffiREAS, the water bill accoimt for Joey Baum was increased 90 cu.
ft. to produce an estimated bill for gallon usage, and
^ WHEREAS, the bill should have been increased by 12 cu. ft.,
NOW IHEREPORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize a refund of $100.33 for water, $10.03 for
water surcharge, $60.12 for sewer and $7.03 for sewer surcharge,
total refund of $177.51 be made to Joey Baum, 113 Burleigh Drive,
Ithaca, New York. Account Number T-1577.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
RESOLUTION NO. 73
Motion by Councilvonan Raffensperger; seconded by Co\mcilman
Bartholf,
WHEREAS, a custoner meter reading error was made on the December 1,
1987 water bill for the property located at 604 Winston Court,
NOW TEJEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize a refund of $268.72 for water, $26.88 for
water surcharge, $203.14 for sewer and $18.81 for sewer surcharge,
total refund of $517.54 be made to Rocco Lucente, mailing address
103 Salem Drive, Ithaca, New York. Account Number U-3216.
wm (Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
RESOLUTION NO. 74
Motion by Councilvonan Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Cardman,
Tofwn Board 32 March 7, 1988
WHEREAS, John Sherry made a meter reading error on his June 1, 1987
water bill,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Ithaca hereby authorize a refund of $177.64 for water, $17.77 for
water surcharge, $156.98 for sewer and $12.57 for sewer surcharge,
total refund of $364.96 be made to John Sherry, 1026 Hanshaw Road,
Ithaca, New York. Account Number T-1430.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
^ SPECIFICATION FOR NEW ROLLER FOR HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
Highway Superintendent John Ozolins stated that currently the
Highway Department has three rollers, one a rubber tired roller
that we will keep, a 10 ton, 1944 or'47 Buffalo roller and 1968
four to six ton static roller. In order for us to use the Gallion
roller we would need to spend $1,000 to $2,000 in repairs. The
last time the Buffalo roller was used it was on the Bums Road
project. The proposed specifications are for approximately a four
to six ton vibratory roller.
Supevisor Desch asked viiat the approximate estimated cost would be?
Town Highway Superintendent Ozolins replied approximately $22,000
to $23,000 with the trailer, with the tow package approximately
$35,000 to $42,000.
RESOLUTION NO. 75
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approve
the specifications for a new roller for the Highway Department and
authorize the bidding for same.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
ARCHITECTS REPORT ON PROPERTY AT 1033 DANBY ROAD
Supervisor Desch stated that this was a necessary step in the
process of dealing with a violation.
Town Building Inspector/Zoning Officer Andrew Frost remarked that
the Board should be aware of the fact that this will not
necessarily get rid of the building. In fact a boarded up building
may be a bigger eye sore than you may want to see but at the same
time it will eliminate a long standing violation.
Councilman Cardman asked vtot this was doing for us?
Town Attorney Barney replied that it was a precondition for us to
be able to go to court now and get an order authorizing us to board
the place up and also getting us an order authorizing payment of
the cost of having the place surveyed in the first place.
mm Councilman Bordoni asked if at any point it give the Town the right
to tear the place it down?
Town Attorney Barney replied, no. Our architect didn't think that
was necessary and it could be made safe without that.
RESOLUTION NO. 76
Town Board 33 March 7, 1988
Motion by Councilnian Bartholf; seconded by Councilman McPeak,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby accepts
the Survey Report on the Sidney Gilbert property, located at 1033
Danby Road, Tax Parcel No. 6-43-1-6, as presented by J. Victor
Bagnardi, Architect and Andrew Frost, Town of Ithaca Building
Inspector, and
FURTEIER BE IT RESOLVED, that the Building Inspector be authorized
and directed to post a signed copy of the Survey Report, such
notice to state the corpensation of the surveyors, on the Sidney
Gilbert property. Tax Parcel No. 6-43-1-6, and the Town Attorney be
authorized to take appropriate legal action to make said building
safe.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
TOWN OF ITHACA WARRANTS
RESOLUTION NO. 77
Motion by Councilwoman Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Cardman,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approves
the Town of Ithaca Warrants dated March 7, 1988, in the following
amounts;
General Fund - Town Wide $ 51,773.53
General Fund - Outside Village $ 21,778.96
Water and Sewer Fund $189,445.35
^ Highway Fund $ 38,286.34
Fire Protection Fund $322,765.50
Capital Projects Fund $ 27,847.46
Lighting Districts Fund $ 442.69
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
BOLTON POINT WARRANTS
RESOLUTION NO. 78
MDtion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilman Bartholf,
RESOLVED, that the Bolton Point Warrants dated March 7, 1988, in
the Operating Account are hereby approved in the amount of
$215,773.44 after review and upon the recommendation of the
Southern Cayuga Lake Intennunicipal Water Ccnmission, they are in
order for payment.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bairtholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
ROAD NETWORK FOR KLONDIKE PROJECT
Town Planner Susan Beeners stated that following the requirement of
the subdivision regulations that any proposed public facility,
e.g., a road, be accepted by the Town Board prior to preliminary
subdivision or roughly at the same time as preliminary subdivision
approval. She went on to say that the Planning Board, after
looking at several alternative configurations for the development
UZ
Town Board 34 March 7, 1988
of the property and at several different schemes for overall road
circulation in this Pennsylvania Avenue-Kendall Avenue area,
finally approved it with several conditions including the granting
of variance by the ZBA for several lots vhich do not meet the
strict requirements of the Zoning Ordinance. One of the conditions
was that the road be accepted by the Town Board. The project will
be going to the Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday night for
discussion of Vcurious lots that are not quite 100' x 150'. She
felt that some of the people vho have been on the Board for avhile
will roonember the discussions about the Pennsylvania Avenue
extension vhich goes south off Pennsylvania Avenue vhich has two or
three houses on it. She felt it had been considered for a vhile by
the Boards of the Town that Pennsylvania extension could scanneday
connect up to Coddington Road. On the Official Highway Map, vhat
is shown is a continuation of both Pennsylvania and Kendall into
parcel number 13 vhich is the Sincebaugh property. There is a
possibility of continuing then, as shown on the Official Highway
Map, Pennsylvania and Kendall coming together and then connecting
up to Juniper Drive. Then there would be a couple of other streets
going up to the East in that large 40 acre Sincebaugh parcel.
That's been the assunption of how circulation would happen. While
Pennsylvania Avenue may not be able to follow its paper street out
to Kendall but at least Kendall probably would be extended up to
connect into Juniper and that because no other opportunities seemed
eminent that the little Pennsylvania Avenue extension would connect
up to Coddington Road. Right now both Pennsylvania and Kendall are
just about 2,000 feet long, that's exceeding by 1,000 feet the
subdivision regulations required for a second means of access into
the developnent. So we have a dangerous condition if there was a
blockage at Pennsylvania and Kendall, there would be no emergency
access.
She went on to say that the applicants vho want to do the Klondike
Manor development came to several road alternatives. One was a
cluster vhich showed a connection from Coddington Road dovm to
Pennsylvania Avenue extension. The second alternative v^s a
conventional subdivision vhich is vhat is currently proposed vdth
two road alternatives, one of them to have an alignment opposite
Spruce Way, and the other possibility was to have it a little
further North and offset from Spruce Way. That was preferred by
the developer to have a road that was located a little further to
the North and not exactly opposite Spruce Way. What the Town
Engineer's reccmmendation v^as though was that because of the field
conditions out there and site distances, that the new road should
be located opposite Spruce Way. This road opens up seme
opportunities in that it is a better future connection to
Pennsylvania Avenue than the Pennsylvania Avenue extension
extension would. To make any other type of a connection down to
the Pennsylvania Avenue extension from this project, vrould require
a considerable amount of fill in front of seme existing properties
there. They are very close to the road. She also noted that the
extension vdth three or four houses on it right now is not a Town
road. What this new road opens up is the possibility of an
extension through undeveloped land on lots 10, 8, and 7. We are
talking about three or four additional acres v^ch are scmevhat
landlocked at the present time but are developable parcels and are
fairly v?ell removed frcm the reservoir, eventhough that is of no
concern. The grade of this road, if it were eventually extended
down to Pennsylvania Avenue through the Kondike Manor development
would be averaging around 7% rather than around 10% or more to
accomplish a direct connection to the Pennsylvania Avenue
extension.
The Town Planner continued saying that v^t was additionally
required by the Planning Board in giving their conditional
preliminary subdivision approval was that because the proposed road
Town Board 35 March 7, 1988
in Klondike Subdivision proposal would end in a cul-de-sac on lot
10, over 1,000 feet long, (it was about 1,260 feet long) it did not
meet the subdivision regulations requirements of 1,000 f^t limit
and it was also not a terribly safe situation. A connection along
the NYSEG right-of-way to Jimiper Drive was required by the
Planning Board before any development could occur, any buildings
could be built down on lot 10. What that short connection along
the NYSEG right-of-way would do would be to provide another way to
get out of Juniper Drive v^ch has about a 10% grade on it, at
least up at the top. There have been a good amount of ccxrplaints
over the years that on some days it almost iitpossible for the
residents to get out on the Coddington Road because of the
condition. So that would open up above to give them an outlet for
the existing residents. It also would provide a second means of
access or egress for the Klondike Manor development, once it meets
all of its final approval requirements.
The Planner stated that vdiy she was bringing it to the Board was
because it is required in the Subdivision Regulations that any time
a road or other public facility is proposed, that the Town Board
has to approve it. She stated that v^at confused her a bit was the
timing of it. This woxild ccme back to you for acceptance of the
deed and title upon ccnpletion of the road. You are now looking at
the concept of the pattern of development and this road location.
It still does require discussion by the Zoning Board of Appeals as
far as lot dimensions go and also has to return to the Planning
Board for final subdivision consideration.
Supervisor Desch asked the Town Attorney if the Board chose to
accept this plan would it be accepted subject to final subdivision
approval and the issuance of variances?
Town Attorney Barney replied that he thought v^t the Planning
(mk) Board was really looking for, and is required by the Subdivision
Regulations, ulitmately if they approve it and give final
si±division approval they have done it on the basis of a road here
and your authority to move that is scmev^at limited. The
Subdivision Regulations conterrplated an opportunity earlier in the
process for the Town Board to say we don't like it or we like it.
Councilman Bartholf asked if the Board had to decide v^ich roads it
wants to have put in?
Supervisor Desch replied, you are accepting the plan for the
location of the roads that the developer would build. You are not
accepting the roads, that would ccme later once they were
constructed.
Councilman Bartholf remarked, the road that they are initiating is
the one opposite Spruce Way and ccming down and hitting
Pennsylvania?
Town Attorney Barney replied, that's the road that the Planning
Board is recommending and indeed has given preliminary plot
approval to.
Supervisor Desch asked the Planner to sketch the extent of v^t the
developer would do.
Town Planner Beeners stated that the extent that the developer
would build the road would be about v^ere the 10 is in lot 10. The
developer would be building from Coddington Road to just about
v^ere the 10 is.
Coimcilman Bartholf asked if he would have his own road for his
development?
Town Board 38 March 7, 1988
perhaps far enough away but headlight sight distance and seeing the
v^ole car is quite limited there. It is much better opposite
Spruce Way. You can see downhill back towards the City in either
location.
RESOLUTION NO. 79
Motion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilman Bordoni,
RESOLVED, that if the Klondike Manor road network as described on
the map is offered for dedication after final approval by the
Planning Board, the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will accept
the road in the proposed location.
(Desch, Bartholf and Bordoni voting Aye. Nays - Raffensperger,
Leary and Cardman. Abstaining - McPeak).
Supervisor Desch noted that the motion failed because of a tie
vote.
Councilwoman Raffensperger proposed a resolution stating that the
Town Board will consider the road proposal on the 30th, the Board
of Zoning Appeals having met by that time and considered the
variances that are needed.
Supervisor Desch asked vtot message would you convey to the
Planning Board?
Councilwoman Raffensperger responded, none at this point because
the Planning Board needs a message from the Board of Zoning J^peals
first. Nothing is going to happen on this \^ole proposal until the
Board of Zoning Appeals decides on the variances, right?
Town Attorney Barney responded that the question was, is it
\ I worthvAiile for the Board of Zoning Appeals having fifty people show
I up and take the flack over the location of this road if the TOwn
Board is going to sinply say we don't want it. It's not really
fair, you are not getting the brunt of that today. The Planning
Board took an awful lot. There was an awful lot of pi±>lic interest
in this and a lot of pxablic coiments and a fairly prolonged
discussion by the public at that Planning Board meeting and the
Board of Zoning Appeals is going to have the same general kind of
meeting.
Supervisor Desch remarked that what Councilwanan Raffensperger was
suggesting is more in the keeping with tabling of the motion.
Town Attorney Barney continued stating that it seemed to him that
if the Board felt there should not be a road here that that message
should be gotten out and then there would be no need for the
variances and the thing should be sent back to the Planning Board
saying the road can't be here.
Coimcilvonan Raffensperger stated that she did not know how to put
this exactly, but after all this Board is not the Board that makes
the decisions on subdivisions. You cannot have such a
controversial subdivision without each one of us having had a lot
of public comment made to us and having formed views as to v^ether
fmmn or not that particular road alignment and that subdivision as a
I I total is a particularly good idea.
Supervisor Desch ronarked, the other problem is that if you decide
not to accept the roadway network you need to relate back v^y and
what would be acceptable. It really goes beyond siirply saying no.
Tcwn Board 39 March 7, 1988
Councilwcnian Raffensperger remarked, then \ie becane the Planning
Board. She stated that she could say, for example, no I don't want
to vote for accepting this particular road network, I think the
road needs to be moved further North in order to provide a
continuance of the 30' buffer. This means that lot #7 would not be
approved. She stated that she could go through this but that seems
in appropriate for the Town Board to be doing, isn't it?
Town Attorney Barney replied that he thought it depends on vdiat
^ role you want to have under the subdivision regulations that are
I , adopted by the Planning Board and approved by the TOwn Board. The
regulations provide that v^enever a subdivider intends to subdivide
land and provides for piablic facility the Planning Board shall
submit the plat to the public body that has authority to accept
that public facility v^ich is the Town Board. That is vAiat they
are doing. It also says that no dedication by the subdivider for a
highway or other proposals shall be shown on a plat imtil the body
responsible for accepting that dedication has, in effect, approved
it. So the answer is yes, either you do one of two things, you say
our Planning Board has studied this. They have taken the input of
staff and the public and they have made a reccmmendation based on
all of that and we are willing to go with their es^rtise. They
took a tough situation and made the best of it the best they could.
Or you say no, they didn't do a good job or no, we don't want the
road there. The person is entitled to si±idivide his land, we set
the standards but as long as they ccme in with a subdivision plan
that meets that standard, we are subject to an Article 78
proceeding if we deny them the priviledge of siabdividing the land.
You can certainly say that with this particular layout they are not
going to be successful on an Article 78 because this requires seme
variances. It deviates from the normal requirements, etc. We can
send it back to the Planning Board with a message, no this road
layout is not acceptable and the Planning Board will ccme back, or
the developer will, with another plan and we will start: down the
! I road again.
! I
Councilwonan Raffensperger responded that she would change her
motion to state that the Town Board does not accept the road
scheme. That too many variances from the strict interpretation of
the Zoning Ordinances are required.
Supervisor Desch stated that he felt the Board should table the
motion for further information.
Town Attorney Barney stated that it did not matter to him. He
noted that the Planning Board took an awful lot of grief and all he
was trying to do avoid, for one of our public agencies, the need
for listening for 45 minutes to one hour or two hours to a number
of comments. There are a lot of people out there vdio are not happy
and no matter vhat this subdivision comes in as, they are not going
to like it. The issue is v^ether there is anything acceptable at
all, and if answer is no then we basically tell the developer you
come in with a plain conventional subdivision that meets all our
requirements and you will get a subdivision approval.
Supervisor Desch remarked that he felt that the Town Board owed it
to the Planning Board to landerstand the level of review that this
went through, v^ch you couldn't really get, no matter vdiat the
Town Planner said. You need to be aware of the constraints that
' ! this parcel offer in terms of development. You may or may not come
' around to agree that this the best way to do it. He felt that
having all that information the chances were that much more
realistic.
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Town Board 40 March 7, 1988
Councilman Cardman stated that, quite frankly, his no vote was
based on his lack of imderstanding, not a total disagreement of
vhere the road goes, but a lack of understanding.
Supervisor Desch remarked that this was good to know and to have in
the record.
Councilman Bordoni asked if Councilman McPeak's abstaining was a no
vote.
Supervisor Desch replied, no.
Town Attorney Barney asked Councilman McPeak if the reason he was
abstaining was because of a possible conflict of interest?
Councilman McPeak replied, that is correct.
Town Attorney Barney continued, saying that it was a true
abstention as opposed to abstaining for a lack of information.
Coimcilman Bordoni remarked, before this goes too far what
constitutes a conflict of interest because he had a real
Supervisor Desch replied, financial interest.
Town Attorney Barney added, personal interest, financial interest.
Councilman Bordoni replied, go on.
Councilwcman Raffensperger remarked that if Councilman Bordoni
wanted to have a conference with the Town Attorney that would be
okay.
Supervisor Desch replied, that's another reason to table it. In
otherwords, he felt that if you do have a conflict of interest you
I j should file something with the Clerk stating yoxir conflict of
' interest, that way we know the status of the vote vhen it is taken.
After talking with the Town Attorney you find out there isn't, then
obviously you don't file.
RESOLUTION NO. 80
Motion by Councilwcman Raffensperger; seconded by Councilman
Cardman,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby tables
action on the Klondike Manor road network proposal in order to
clarify the questions of the conflict of interests of nonbers of
the Board and to obtain further information about the road system
until the i^ril 11 meeting.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leairy, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
RESOLUTION NO. 81
Motion by Supervisor Desch, seconded by Councilman Bartholf,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will hold a
Special Town Board meeting at noon time on Wednesday, March 30,
1988.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none) .
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Town Board 41 March 7, 1988
Councilwoman Leary stated that she just wanted to repeat a request
that she had made avdiile ago and that she knew other Board members
have also, to get background material for these meetings in
advance, as much as hximanely possible. If it ccmes in a little too
late to send it out, like the "Circulate to the Board" folder.
There have been times in the past v\^ere she has asked later on
after the meeting to have a copy of it. It would be nice to have
at least copies of it for everyone rather than have to pass it
around because it is very hard to read this while someone is giving
a report. If possible, she asked if the Supervisor's report could
be written also or even just in outline form just so we have it in
front of us.
Councilwoman Leary went on to say that one of the things brought up
tonight was the resolution from the League of Women Voters and this
was an exairple of vtot she means. It was dated February 19th and
the Board could have had it well in advance of this meeting. It
refers to an amendment to the Open Meetings Laws in 1985, she
stated that she was not on the Board in 1985. Councilwoman Leary
asked if that Board passed any kind of of resolution like this?
Supervisor E)esch replied, no.
Councilwoman Leary stated that she felt it was kind of unusual that
three years after the Governor amended this and the legislature
amended this that we are being asked to vote on this just sort of
coincident with the fact that now there is a majority of democrats
on the Board.
Councilwoman Raffensperger stated that she really had to say that
she was very instrumental in working with the League to bring this
resolution to all of the Boards. The timing of it has to do with
how long it takes to do the research on it and the fact that they
thought that the legislature was going to pass a law saying that
I I local governments would be exenpted from the provisions. So that
i is really the reason that it has taken so long to bring this to
local governments. What we have done is given up any hope that the
State legislatiare will make the Open Meetings Law v^ole again.
Councilman Cardman asked if there was a deadline at v^ich time no
further items can be added to the agenda?
Supervisor Desch replied, we try to get then as early as possible,
a week prior to the meeting, but it is inpossible with the kind of
activity we have, to do that. He went on to say that the Board
would have to judge v^ether they have the information they need
vAien something ccmes up at the last minute. Senetimes its in the
best interest of the Town to do that. You can have a hard, fast
mle that if it's not on the agenda you don't deal with it but that
then gets into routine things that really should not be held up.
It's a judgemental kind of thing.
Councilwoman Leary stated that this memo was February 19th. So it
was a long time ago. She asked vdiy the Board didn't get it before
tonight?
Supervisor Desch replied that frankly he did not know vdiether to
bring it up at all tonight, for that reason. However, he felt that
it was routine enough and that it had been around long enough that
people would be ccamfortable with it so he stated that he took and
chance and said if you don't want to deal with it that's fine.
That's vdiy he put it in his report and that he had said if you want
to deal with it it's here.
Coiancilwcman Leary responded that this is the kind of thing that
nobody can vote can against because its like God Bless America, but
Town Board 42 March 7, 1988
that she would never dream of taking part in a policital caucus.
But she just wanted to make sure that it was understood that this
thing wouldn't stop her frcm discussing Town business with any
other members of the Board of any political party.
Councilwoman Raffensperger responded, its not intended to.
Councilwoman Leary replied, well okay. But seme of the wording is
pretty broad. It says all of its deliberations, the Town declares
r*'; that all of its deliberations will be conducted in accordance with
I ! the Open Meetings Law and that say right in front of the public.
Councilwoman Raffensperger replied, that's not quite v^t the Open
^0^ Meetings Law says, that was probably an error not to have had the
law here including the amendment.
Councilman Cardman replied, that just supplements Councilwoman
Learys point. He felt that the Board must be much more careful and
if they don't feel they have enough information in front of us ws
are not going to act on something. There are a couple of instances
tonight vdiere that happened.
Supervisor Desch replied, then you table it instead of voting no.
Councilwoman Leary went on to say that there was just a point that
some meetings that she attended years ago, that there is something
besides abstaining that you can vote, you can vote present, not
voting and doesn't count as a yes or no. It's a true nothing
because v^en you figure out the votes you don't count the number of
people at the table actually, as a vote, you count one less.
Supervisor Desch replied but you have to ask yourself. As an
elected official is that the way to arrive at a decision. He
stated that that was a question you have to deal with v^en you
t I arrive at your decision.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
RESOLUTION NO. 82
Motion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilwoman Raffensperger,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby moves
into Executive Session to discuss the possible litigation with the
Village of Cayuga Heights.
(Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
voting Aye. Nays - none).
RESOLUTION NO. 83
Motion by Supervisor Desch; seconded by Councilwonnan Raffensperger,
RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby moves
back into Open Session.
0mi (Desch, McPeak, Raffensperger, Bartholf, Leary, Bordoni and Cardman
I ; voting Aye. Nays - none).
!
The Town Board authorized the Supervisor to send a letter to the
Village of Cayuga Heights indicating that the contract between the
Town and Village for sewage treatment precluded the Village frcm
limiting the number of Town connections.
\
Town Board 43 March 1, 1988
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was duly adjourned.
Town Clerk
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ATFiOAViT Of tVMUCATiOK
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a public hearing oh March 7,
19o8.at 7:CX) P.M.j' brth? Town
Hall," 126 .East Senecp 'Street, j
ithoco. New -York Jo consider!
the odoptibh of ,b locdh low
providing for^ eoYironnVentql
cevievY.pf^odions in the Jpwn
of Ithocq^arid will at this'time^
heqr;ol I ^rsohsTntfqyqr o^of
oppbsed ,tb; the" rodbptibh ^f.
said local low.
Jean H,,Svvartwobdj
Februgiy 26,.
299
Town Board 36 March 7, 1988
Supervisor Desch replied, yes.
Town Attorney Barney remarked that it will be back for you to
accept the road itself at the point v^ere the road is constructed
and the Town Engineer is satisfied that the construction meets the
Town's specifications and the title is good.
Councilvranan Raffensperger asked if an easement exists for the
extension of that road as you discussed, towards Pennsylvania
Avenue?
Town Planner Beeners replied, no.
Councilwoman Raffensperger asked if an easement exists for the
connection frcm that road, vtetever it is called, to Juniper Drive?
Town Planner Beeners replied, no.
Town Attorney Barney noted that preliminary approval was subject to
the obtaining an easement to the connection to Juniper Drive.
Supervisor Desch remarked, in other words he can't develop lot 10
unless he has an easement.
Councilwoman Raffensperger stated but to approve the road as you
are asking tonight, her understanding was that the Board of Zoning
Appeals has a lot of variances v^ich are sort of involved with the
road placQtient because of the size of lots.
Town Attorney Barney replied, if you look at the plat, by locating
that road South opposite of Spruce Way, the dimentions to the South
line of the parcel are fairly short and the depth of a number of
the lots along the South line are scraevdiat less than the Zoning
^ Ordinance requires.
I Coimcilman McPeak asked the Town Planner if she was familiar with
the lots up there. Is part of that development Richard and Mary
Brown's property that lacovelli just bought?
Town Planner Beeners replied, yes.
Councilman McPeak stated that he would be unable to vote, then.
Supervisor Desch remarked that part of the problem, v^ich you can
tell by the sketches', is the irregular shape of the v^ole thing and
you wouldn't create this shape if you could avoid it.
Supervisor Desch ronarked that the Town Planner had alluded to
other options that were available. He noted that a lot of hours
were spent ccming up this proposal.
Town Planner Beeners agreed noting that it is a difficult project
all the way around. They looked at a connection to Pennsylvania
extension vdiich is not a Town road. There was consideration of a
road located further to the North off Coddington Road.
Supervisor Desch noted that the right-of-way in total was also
looked at.
Town Planner Beeners agreed and noted that perhaps the right-of-way
could actually be used to go further down to a paper street. We
also looked at v^ether the NYSEG right-of-way could be used for
even a slightly larger scheme just to work seme sense out of the
irregular lots in here and that was to use the paper street
extension to Pennsylvania where it hits Coddington. The concept of
using part of the NYSEG right-of-way for roads is something that
Tdwn Board 37 March 7, 1988
my be should be considered further in the future as well as for
recreation use of the trail.
Councilwcmn Raffensperger stated that she was concerned, we are
sitting here and talking about my be it will go, my be we will
get access to the lands. She stated she hasn't quite figured out
access to seme of the parcels frcm minutes she had read. Whether
or not we can come through Pennsylvania Avenue the way it is on the
Town Highway mps and particularly since the Board of Zoning
^ Appeals has not yet met and approved the variances v^ich is very
I much concerned with this road placement. She stated that her
question was, viiy are we doing it right now, it seem to be the
wrong time. First of all, the Board does not have enough
informtion to do it for the network that it effects and secondly,
why are we doing it proceeding the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting?
We don't know vtot is going to happen.
Town Attorney Barney stated that he could not ccmment on the
network but on the Board of Zoning Appeals its two reasons, one is
that this meeting happened to occur before the Board of Zoning
J^)peals meeting but secondly, and perhaps more substantively if
this Board is not willing to accept this road at approximtely this
location it makes moot anything that the Board of Zoning i^speals
does. There is no reason for a variance or for that mtter to even
consider the mtter if the Town Board is saying we won't accept the
road at this location. Their variances are tied to this road being
here and variances being sought relate to a lot layout tied to this
road.
Supervisor Desch remarked that on the point of the access frcm lot
10 to Pennsylvania Avenue, the developer in his defense is
reserving the corridor from the end of the cul-de-sac to the
property line. It will be a cul-de-sac to the edge now but there
will be a reservation to carry it through so we are not locked out.
I I Councilwoman Raffensperger stated that she understood that but that
there is no real connection because of the intervening proprerties,
right?
Town Planner Beeners replied, no immediate connection but rocm
through imdeveloped property for it. But looking at the inpacts of
any type of a collector road and weighing all alternatives of using
Pennsylvania Avenue extension or scmething through parcel 10, the
impacts of using the extension are a lot greater to the neighbors.
Supervisor Desch noted that the land was open, still undeveloped.
Councilwcman Raffensperger remarked, but not definately available.
She went on to say that we just went through the business of
talking about an access road that was approved and then became
unsuitable. She stated that she had just gotten very concerned
about how we do this.
Supervisor Desch replied that you have to start scmev^ere. Anyone
coming in with a proposal to develop lot 7 and 8 will have to put
it there.
n
Councilman Bordoni noted that on the penciled in schemtic of the
road way it ccme out directly across frcm Spruce Way. He
questioned the fact that the developer would prefer it ccming out
North of Spruce Way and v^y wasn't that considered?
Town Engineer Flumerfelt replied that minly because of site
distance, the visibility there is not good exiting onto Coddington
Road from that location you are down over the brow of the hill
there. There is a change in the grade, you see a cars windshield
8ST